AUGUST 13, 2019 - With the blessings of many souls, God and Manav Sadhna’s decades of commited service to the underprivileged communities we serve in, sprouted what feels like a miracle: 17 of our children from some of the most challenging life backgrounds, tour the world with a powerful performance that leaves our audiences in tears. And this is just the tip of the ice-berg.

Over the past 2 years Empty Hands Music and Nimo Patel and the Manav Sadhna, Gandhi Ashram Family, has led a pilgrimage with 17 children and 8 mentors, through a spiritual, emotional and creative journey of the heart and mind. The “Jai Jagat” show (Glory to the Planet”), that has defied and rejected all the negativity that is flowing in the world right now, and injected in it, a new hope of faith and action. We recently just returned from our 2-month tour around the world where our 17 kids (who have some of the most challenging life backgrounds) performed a deeply moving 90-minute broadway-style production in 11 cities, and left their audiences in tears. And this is just the tip of the ice-berg.

The 2-year journey with our 17 children, was one of overcoming odds of failure, death, sickness and other challenges that our children deal with so often, and pushed us all towards light, togetherness, courage and love.

We have seen some of our performers/children who were high school dropouts, come back to school after 3 years. Other children’s families who initially rejected the opportunity for their kids to take part in, became pillars of support on their children’s journey. Children who didn’t care about education, have become amazing students finally untapping their intellectual potential after 14 years of life. And those once too shy to speak in front a group, win over audiences with their amazing talents of drama and acting.

The journey is too complex and deep to share within a simple newsletter, but needless to say, after 2 years together, we were blessed to then share all of our learnings from this pilgrimage on a performance tour across the world. In 45 days across America and the UK, our kids performed 11 major shows in front of sold-out audiences, leaving each auditorium and theater damp with tears of joy, inspiration and hope. With one simple message: Love as if the Earth is your one and only family.

The journey continues as we recently returned back from the tour and have transitioned into the school year. The children have been amazing in their shift from - performing in front of thousands of people, enjoying Disneyland, performing in front of the White House, being loved by so many people and amazing volunteers in each city we visited, visiting various privileged and underprivileged schools across the USA and UK, and much more – yet returning to home sweet home, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in the slum environments that our children are from, and not having flinched one bit. Realizing that there is no difference in their hearts about how they feel about the people or places they were in, whether they are the Mansions of Malibu, CA or the slums of Ahmedabad. We are all one. Maybe that’s what Bob Marley meant to share with his song, “One Love”.